Brightheart's Love Life
by Icetail
Summary: Brightheart has a love, but does he love love her back? Please review! -Icetail ..


Brightheart's Love Life

CHAPTER ONE

Brightheart yawned and stretched sleepily. It was a warm green-leaf morning, a perfect day for hunting. She slowly padded out of the warriors den, to get a piece of fresh-kill for breakfast. When she reached the fresh-kill pile, she chose a fat, juicy vole, and took it over to the warriors' den to eat it with Cloudtail.

She found him in the corner of the den, fast asleep. She tried to wake him up by putting the vole in front of his nose, but he just rolled over.

"Cloudtail wake up." she whispered.

"Huh?" asked Cloudtail stupidly. Then he saw Brightheart. "Oh. Hi Brightheart!"

"Good morning! Come on, help me eat this... It's way to big for me to eat by myself!" she flicked her tail towards the vole.

Cloudtail was suddenly wide awake. He stood up, and stretched. When they finally finished the vole, they started to share tongues.

"Want to go hunting?" asked Brightheart hopefully.

"Sure!" said Cloudtail, giving her an affectionate lick on the ear. "Come on!"

He led the way out of the camp.

"Where do you want to go hunting?" asked Brightheart.

"How about next to the stream?" he asked.

"Okay." she said happy to be with Cloudtail.

They reached the stream very soon, and Cloudtail said that he was going to chase a mouse he had just smelled. So Brightheart wandered around, tasting the air for a fresh scent of prey. She finally smelled the scent of a squirrel. Dropping into a crouch, she saw the squirrel eating a nut under a tree. She pounced and heard it give a last squeak, and then felt it go limp. Picking it up, Brightheart felt the warmth of the animal slowly drain away from it's body. Then she buried a few tail lengths away from the tree.

She then smelled a strong scent of rabbit in a sunny clearing, and pounced.

A surprised meow sounded from the clearing, and Brightheart felt not a rabbit, but a cat. Then she noticed that it was Cloudtail, not the rabbit. It seemed that he was sun bathing in the clearing.

"What did you do that for?" he demanded.

"How was I supposed to know that you weren't hunting, but sun bathing?" she yowled angrily at Cloudtail.

He sighed.

"I'm sorry Brightheart. I was just taking advantage of the sun. Do you forgive me?"

She gave him an affectionate lick on the ear.

"Of course I do," she said. "Stupid fur-ball."

"Did you catch anything?" asked Cloudtail.

"Yeah, I just caught a squirrel back next to the river." she flicked her tail to her buried prey.

"I caught a rabbit and a mouse..." he said. "Want to go take it back to camp?"

"Okay." she said. They left, following the stream, that bordered Riverclan.

"Hey," said Cloudtail suddenly. "Isn't that a RiverClan cat on our side of the border?"

Brightheart looked over to the border.

"They can't be on our border!" said Brightheart who had finally seen the intruder.

"Let's chase them out!" said Cloudtail lashing his tail angrily.

"No! He might be dangerous! Maybe he's lost." said Brightheart.

"Or maybe he's stealing our prey!" hissed Cloudtail.

"Why would they be stealing our prey? They probably have more than we do." said Brightheart.

They cautiously walked over to the RiverClan cat.

"Why are you in our territory?" demanded Cloudtail.

"That's none of your business." he said rudely.

"Get out now." said Brightheart.

"I'm not on your territory. I'm a loner so you can't tell me where I can and can't go." he said simply.

"Then if you don't belong to any clan, go find your own territory." said Brightheart sharply.

The loner bared his teeth, and lunged at Brightheart. Cloudtail reacted at once by biting the loner's shoulder. The loner ignored this, and kept on fighting with Brightheart.

Brightheart rolled him over, and bit him as hard as she could on his leg. The loner decided that he was going to go for Cloudtail now, and jumped on his paw.

Cloudtail took advantage of having the loner attack him, and rolled him over and bit him on his exposed belly. He yowled in pain, and ran away.

"Thanks Cloudtail. You saved my life!" she licked him.

Then she noticed he was wincing in pain.

"Are you okay? You hurt your paw pad! Come on, we have to get back to camp." she said, trying to get him to his feet.

"It's okay, I can walk." he purred as Brightheart licked his wound vigorously.

"Here, eat this. It will take the pain away." said Cinderpelt, the medicine cat of the clan said.

Cloudtail ate the herbs she was trying to give to him.

"Does it still hurt Cloudtail?" asked Brightheart anxiously.

"A bit," he said. "Just wait 'till I get my hands on that loner. I'll kill him!"

"There will be no need for that." said a calm voice from the entrance.

"Oh. Hi Firestar!" said Cloudtail.

"Hello. Is it true that you two found a loner out by Riverclan territory?" he asked.

"Yes Firestar." said Brightheart dipping her head.

"We fought him off too." said Cloudtail proudly.

"Well actually, Cloudtail was the real one that fought him off." said Brightheart.

"Good job, both of you. I will send a patrol over to the stream, to make sure he's moved on." he said turning out of the medicine cat den and leaving.

"Well, I guess I should go and collect the prey we caught this morning." said Brightheart getting to her feet.

"Don't worry Brightheart," said Cinderpelt teasingly. "Cloudtail will be in very good hands here with me."

"Okay, bye Cloudtail!" she licked him out on the ear.

"Bye Brightheart!" he called to her retreating back.

Brightheart took off running to the stream to find her prey. _Where did I put that squirrel?_ she thought.

Finally, she found her squirrel, and walked over to the RiverClan boarder, to see if the loner was still there, and to think. The loner wasn't there, so Brightheart had some time for herself.

She was deep in thought when someone disturbed her.

"Brightheart!" yowled Sandstorm, who was Firestar's mate.

"Hi Sandstorm!" said Brightheart bounding up to her.

"Hi!" she said.

"What are you doing up here?" asked Brightheart curiously.

"Looking for you of course!" said Sandstorm.

"Why were you looking for me?" meowed Brightheart in confusion.

"I just wanted to talk to you." said Sandstorm.

"Oh." said Brightheart.

"What were you doing up here all alone?" asked Sandstorm.

"I was just coming to pick up a squirrel that I caught this morning." said Brightheart.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" asked Brightheart.

"Well, I wanted to know if you and Cloudtail are... Well, mates." said Sandstorm finally.

Brightheart looked surprised at Sandstorm's question, but she answered it anyway.

"I guess so, I mean, I like him a lot, and I think he likes me, so... Yeah I guess we are mates."

"Great!" purred Sandstorm. "I'm so glad!"

"Umm Sandstorm?" asked Brightheart.

"Yes?"

"Why did you ask me if we were mates?"

"Well, it wasn't really my idea in the first place. Cloudtail asked me to ask you."

"Oh!" she said happily. "When did he ask you?"

"I went into Cinderpelt's den to check on him, and he asked me." she said.

"And there's one more thing." continued Sandstorm. "He said to meet him in Sunningrocks as soon as you can. So you should go. He's probably waiting by now."

"Thank you so much Sandstorm! I really should get going!" she said getting up and running down the slope towards Sunningrocks, which was next to RiverClan's territory.


End file.
